Tag Archives: music

You have no idea how much I long to go for a day trip, to hop in the ‘Hoe and go for a ride.
Preferably to a local hot spring. My heart almost hurts with the longing!
Nothing is ever as good as one remembers, however. Alas.

The hot spring travel song we would blast on our way to Hwy 395 is posted above. [youtube id=8D6pPgwafq0]

Elspeth over at Loving in the Ruins posted about how her family was working on abstaining “from any music other than Christian music for a month and see what God does with that.”

My problem with that? Being a former actual Heathen who still enjoys metal, I find most Christian music…creepy. There was a South Park episode where Cartman forms his own praise music boy band and turned secular pop music love *koff sex* songs into “Christian” music so icky I can’t even hardly think about it. But I will tell ya, sitting in church, I swear that is exactly what I was hearing.

Mind you, that type of song did not appear at the Reformed Church I attended until it closed, but in the bazillion mainstream churches our family went to trying to find SOMETHING that was not completely appalling and apostate. (This was in California. It’s not easy to find a good church there, for many, many reasons.)

I am trying this idea out, with good results. It’s been a challenge finding music that will fit the bill. The rock music I have enjoyed in the past really is unsuitable to the person I am right now, for the most part. I find the lyrics especially troubling, viewing them through a Biblical lens.

Since I grew up outside of Christianity, I know very few hymns. It’s something I am working on, trying to find versions of classic hymns I find appealing.

There are a few things I enjoy: almost anything by Bifrost Arts, a lot of of Indelible Grace’s catalog and Chavah Messianic Radio.

I have a special place in my heart for Chavah. I can put it on as lovely background music for hours. I don’t generally care for Klezmer type music, and some of the stuff on their is point blank AWFUL, but most of the music is so infectiously cheerful I can’t help but smile when I hear it. Some of the best artists to my listening ears are Sons of Korah (LOVE the Psalms!), Marty Goetz, and Paul Wilbur.

But there is one artist so different from anything I’ve ever heard it actually makes me jump when one of his songs come on.His name is Aviad Cohen, the artist formerly known as “50 Shekel”. He performs Techno-Messianic music, of all things!

His music is definitely not for everyone. But it fits the bill when I need to listen to something uptempo to cheer me up 🙂

Here’s a couple of his songs. The first is techno with a bit of rap in the middle, the second is pop dance music and features Sharon Wilbur.

I like to run it in the background when I am cleaning or cooking. I especially like the skewing towards Sabbath songs for Fri-Sat.

Keep in mind there are some wretched songs on there. Don’t be afraid to fast forward! I have developed a strange fondness for Aviad Cohen’s Techno-messianic music, but it seems it’s getting downvoted to oblivion.

I am dreaming of hot springs today. It is chilly here in Sonora in the AM, but not cold (100 degrees during the day). The destination that I am longing to jump in my Jeep and drive off to is Benton Hot Springs. It’s a quiet, unassuming place at the end of Hwy 120. The drive there is to die for! My favorite way to go is over Tioga Pass through Yosemite, which cuts the drive down to about 3.5 hours for me. After driving through one of the most beautiful (but severely overpopulated tourist-wise) places in America (Yosemite) , the road ends up on Hwy 395, another breathtaking and somewhat desolate stretch of highway that varies between Nevada-like desert and high windswept passes. After a brief sojourn around Mono Lake Highway 10 splits off from 395 and that’s where the real fun begins.
It’s about 50 miles to Benton Hot Springs from the split, and the road is my very favorite. As you go through winding highway, the scenery changes completely. First, stunning old Red Pine forests, with gravel-like rock that makes the forest look like it’s been paved; eerie but still beautiful. Next up: rock formations from old lava flows, piled up alongside the road in strange drips and lumps. After that, desert and sagebrush, with cattle browsing around small man-made lakes out in the honest-to-god nowhere. I like to crank up my favorite “I’m going to the hot springs song”: Rain in the Summertime by The Alarm, an old 80’s tune that was meant to travel by. The road has severe dips that when driven at 60-plus MPH launches the car into space briefly, leaving one weightless and giddy. Finally, after all of the twists and turns, you pull into the bowl-like valley that drops into Benton Hot Springs, which is a sleepy little resort on the edge of a reservation. It’s a great place to camp, with individual tubs you can fill with hot spring water. There’s also a B and B there that I intend to stay at on a trip.http://www.historicbentonhotsprings.com/ I can barely restrain myself from grabbing my gear and taking off! Next week, my precious! Soon I will take real vacation time. Then I will be off!